Chair

Media Contact

Terry Glaser

Adjunct Professor

Ms. Glaser is a stage director of plays and operas, as well as aplaywright, translator, and acting teacher. She has worked both inacademia and the professional theatre for over 25 years. She hastaught at UCSD, USC, CalArts, Earlham College, the Michael ChekhovStudio-USA West, Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company, the FritzTheatre, the Actors Alliance of San Diego, the Classical SingersAssociation of Los Angeles, the Opera Theatre of Northern VirginiaConservatory, and the Old Globe Theatre. Ms. Glaser has served asstage director for over 40 professional and university productionsacross the country, including the plays The Beaux' Stratagem, TheGovernment Inspector, The Bungler, The Comedy of Errors, ThreeSisters, The Heidi Chronicles, Trouble in Mind, Stepbrothers in Crime,A Flea in Her Ear, and Hotel Paradiso; and the operas La Bohème, LeNozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, La Périchole, L'Orfeo, Croquefer, TheItalian Straw Hat, Dido and Aeneas, The Beggar's Opera, Orpheus inthe Underworld, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.Ms. Glaser also specializes in the application of acting techniques toother fields. She founded Glaser Communication in Washington, DC,teaching communication and presentation skills to a variety ofbusiness clients, including the American Management Association, theGirl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital, the Bureau of the Census,the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Support Center ofWashington. With her extensive training in whole-brain teachingtechniques, she conducted training seminars for the Prince WilliamCounty, VA, School System; the Oswego, NY, School System; and thePrince George's County, MD, Library System. She has also conductedseminars in courtroom-presentation techniques at the CaliforniaWestern School of Law. For USD's Center for Educational Excellence,she conducted a seminar in the hidden meanings in nonverbalcommunication, and for USD's Changemaker Hub, she has conductedworkshops that use actor-training techniques to cultivate empathy. Ms.Glaser has been an Education Outreach Consultant for the San DiegoOpera, writing scripts and conducting programs for the DocentTraining Program. She is a member of the Association of TheatreMovement Educators, where she sits on the review panel for theVisiting Artist/Scholar Fellowship Program.

In 2012, Ms. Glaser became the first recipient of the Association forTheatre in Higher Education/Kennedy Center American College TheatreFestival Region #8 Award for Innovative Teaching.

Education

Ms. Glaser holds a B.A. in Playwriting from Brown University and anM.A. in Theatre, with a focus on Directing, from Syracuse University.She has specialized training in the Michael Chekhov Technique,Richard Schechner's Rasaboxes™, red-nose clown, neutral mask,Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, period style, and Lecoq.

Scholarly and Creative Work

Ms. Glaser's writing includes original scripts and translations of classicplays and operas. She has directed productions of her translations ofThe Frogs, A Flea in Her Ear, L'Orfeo, and Croquefer. Her original playsinclude Twisted Perspective; Chanticleer; and The Mysterious Dwarf, aone-person show, premiered at USD in 2011, in which she portrays thewriter Nikolai Gogol. She has developed a comprehensive trainingmethod for acting in opera and is in the process of finishing a textbook on that subject.

Ms. Glaser regularly makes conference presentations for theAssociation of Theatre Movement Educators and the Association forTheatre In Higher Education, where she has also served as arespondent for debut and adapted acting exercises.

Teaching Interests

In her teaching of acting, Ms. Glaser focuses on the intersection ofphysicality and psychology, continually developing techniques thatreinforce, complement, and extend traditional Stanislavsky training.The psycho-physical techniques she has made an intensive study ofinclude the work of Michael Chekhov, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Lecoq.Ms. Glaser is also skilled in period styles, such as Shakespeare andRestoration Comedy, integrating the special linguistic demands ofthese nonrealistic styles with the physical, emotional, and imaginativedemands inherent in all acting. In all of her teaching, she fosters instudents the ability to release their creativity, expand their personalboundaries, and function at their maximum potential.